Gaming giant MGM Resorts International is taking a medical marijuana company to court to prevent it from using its trademarked M Life player loyalty club name. Last month, MGM sent a cease-and-desist order to M Life Inc., a company that has applied to operate a marijuana dispensary in Las Vegas under the name M’Life Wellness. But according to Fox News, the company did not comply with the order.
The name M Life is used at 15 MGM properties, and according to the lawsuit, MGM holds six federal trademarks pertaining to M Life, and has “spent tens of millions of dollars” promoting the rewards program in print, online and in billboards. The company even has a YouTube channel called MLIFETV.
The company says M’Life’s use of the term for medical marijuana “constitutes dilution by tarnishment” and has “created an association in the mind of the consuming product” between the MGM customer cards and the marijuana business, harming the valuable brand.
The lawsuit coincides with efforts by some in the casino industry to also get in on the nascent medical pot business. In August, Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett warned gaming licensees and prospective license applicants to stay away from medical marijuana “unless federal law is changed.” The sale of marijuana is still a felony, according to federal statute. But some businesspeople with connections to the gaming industry have chosen to cut those ties rather than miss out on the pot of gold to be made selling pot.
Among them are the wife of Bruce Familian, owner of slot machine route operator Nevada Gaming Partners. She was recently expected to sell her 8 percent stake in GB Sciences Nevada LLC, a medical marijuana dispensary in Clark County. Las Vegas Sun owner and publisher Brian Greenspun has sold his shares of Greenspun Gaming LLC and G.C. Investments “to family members” to seek a medical marijuana dispensary in Henderson. And Barry Moore, who has restricted gaming licenses for several taverns, may sell those businesses so his wife can stay in the pot business.
And last week, casino owner Timothy Herbst, who was approved for a 50 percent ownership in Terrible’s in Pahrump, assured state gaming commissioners that his brother, Troy Herbst, a former investor in the casino business, would have no involvement with the gaming company because of his interest in a potential medical marijuana dispensary in Clark County.
Troy Herbst owns 10 percent of the Clinic Nevada LLC, which received a Clark County dispensary license.
One gaming license holder who sought entry into the medical marijuana business but later bowed out was M Resort CEO Anthony Marnell III.
